Manaully added clients not roaming between networks

[ESCG-Danny]

We are adding clients manually to an open SSID via mac address, but these clients are not detecting when the device roams to a second network we have created. is this by design?

[jrhop]

When you say a second network do you mean another SSID or a completely new network/site? Any clients added are site specific, so you would need to re-add for each site.

[ESCG-Danny]

I mean another site/network with a SSID of the same name. We have hundreds of chromebooks that we have added to a network/site SSID by MAC address but have found that we have to re-add them when the users roam to another location (network/site). Is there an easy way to export all of the clients from one site and import into another site?

[ww]

I would consider using a radius server.

[jrhop]

Under Network-wide - Clients you can download the list as a CSV, but don't think it will include those who haven't connected. Setting up an open SSID and limiting it via MAC address is always going to be difficult to manage, is there a reason you are doing it this way? Are the Chromebooks not managed by policies where you could push down SSID profiles using a WPA key or RADIUS?

[ESCG-Danny]

This was the way recommended by the consultants we had to set up the network. Excuse my ignorance, but how can Chromebook devices and users authenticate via Radius? We block students from connecting to that open SSID, only permitting MAC addresses of known chromebooks. The students are logging into the chromebooks with their Google credentials.

[jrhop · Accepted solution]

It would depend on your back end setup, and how the Chrombooks are managed. I assume if managed you can push down WiFi profiles/config to them? If so you could push down a WiFi profile with WPA key. Radius could be achieved via a service account or certificates.

I believe you can also use Meraki and Google auth - https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Encryption_and_Authentication/Configuring_WPA2-Enterprise_with_G...